1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and its control method and, more particularly, to an image selecting method attained by an application program which operates on a computer of an image processing apparatus and has a function for selecting an image or an application program having a function for evaluating an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital camera has spread into our lives and cultures. In association with the progress of recent peripheral techniques of cameras and computers, the number of photographed images held by the user is extremely large.
When arranging such an extremely large number of photographed images, an operation in which such a check that the image is enlargedly displayed and inspected or the like is made and an “evaluation” about whether or not the image is a “valid” image is assigned is necessary. However, when the number of images is extremely large, much labors and a long time are required to accurately evaluate the images. The more the number of images increases, the more it is difficult to stably maintain a reference for evaluation in a range from the beginning to the end.
A general application program to create a photographic collection has a processing step of selecting an image file at an initial stage after the start of the application. However, since a long time is also required to select a target image from an extremely large number of images photographed by a digital camera, the user needs a very long time and a large amount of labors. Thus, there occurs such a situation that the number of image files which remain in a hard disk of a computer without being processed after photographing and are not used is large.
As a method of arranging and evaluating the images, for example, generally, there is an application program such as “Windows (registered trademark) Live Photo Gallery” of Microsoft Corporation; that is, an application program for sequentially executing such operations that images are enlargedly displayed one by one and an evaluation to the image is designated by a point number.
As another example, a method whereby such operations that two images are enlargedly displayed and compared with each other to decide their superiority/inferiority and leave the image having a higher evaluation and the next image is enlargedly displayed to be compared with the left image are sequentially repeated and the image having the highest evaluation is finally decided has also been proposed (refer to the Official Gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-018516).
However, according to any one of those methods, if the number of images to be subjected to he evaluation reaches an extremely large value such as hundreds of images, a long time is required in order to carefully check the images one by one, so that a heavy burden on the checking is applied to the user. There are many cases where comparison between the evaluation reference of the image at the initial stage and that at the last stage are compared shows a large difference, so that the proper image selection cannot be attained.
Therefore, such an effective mechanism that with respect to an extremely large number of photographed images held by the user of the digital camera, the user can still select the proper image without being aware of the heavy burden while maintaining the evaluation reference of the image is demanded.